Fails the Bechdel test
The Mother
2023. Directed by Niki Caro, written by Misha Green and Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 1 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
A female assassin/operative in the US Army must reluctantly hand over her teenage daughter Zoe to foster parents for safety because of her risky, uncertain duties. Later, certain situations develop in which Zoe is in danger from assassins. The mother takes charge of her daughter and teaches her survival skills while doing everything possible to safeguard her from harm.
- Released
- 12 May 2023
- Genres
- Action, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 5.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 45 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- The Mother 117 lines, woman
- Cruise 61 lines, man
- Alexei 51 lines
- Zoe 30 lines, woman
- The Woman 27 lines, woman
- Jons 13 lines, man
- Hector 11 lines, man
- Zoe'S Mother 8 lines, woman
- Fife 7 lines
- Barney 6 lines
Full cast, 31 people
- Jennifer Lopez as Mother
- Lucy Paez as Zoe
- Omari Hardwick as Cruise
- Joseph Fiennes as Adrian
- Gael García Bernal as Hector
- Paul Raci as Jons
- Jesse Garcia as Tarantula
- Yvonne Senat Jones as Sonya
- Edie Falco as SAIC Eleanor Williams
- Michael Karl Richards as Zoe's Adopted Dad
- Link Baker as Marcus Stone
- Mayumi Yoshida as C-Section Nurse
- Ryan Cowie as New Father
- Todd Matthews as Fed at Zoe's House
- Yadier Fernández as Cuban OB / GYN
- Olivia Lucas as Medical Clinic Nurse
- Mehdi Regragui as Arms Dealer
- Jay Cardinal Villeneuve as Exal Room Doctor
- Daniel Whittaker as FedEx Worker
- Richard Miro as FBI Tip Line (voice)
- Juan José Rodríguez as Cuban Cab Driver
- Karl McMillan as Car Rental Manager
- Noah Crawford as El Globo (uncredited)
- Fahim Fazli as Afghan Hammam (uncredited)
- Saif Mohsen as Mohamed (uncredited)
- Gabriel Bonilla as Looper (voice / uncredited)
- Yorkie Joaquin as Cleaner (uncredited)
- Leslie Lluvet as Looper (voice / uncredited)
- Carlos Robles as Kentucky Sniper (uncredited)
- Isaac Gonzalez Rossi as Looper (voice / uncredited)
- Damon Zolfaghari as Zippo Vendor (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 30% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 157
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 3 | 12 |
| 5 to 8 | 3 | 2 |
| 9 to 12 | 3 | 1 |
| 13 to 16 | 7 | 0 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 to 32 | 4 | 2 |
| 33 to 36 | 3 | 2 |
| 37 to 40 | 11 | 16 |
| 41 to 44 | 1 | 0 |
| 45 to 48 | 6 | 5 |
| 49 to 52 | 1 | 2 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 2 |
| 57 to 60 | 25 | 23 |
| 61 to 64 | 1 | 1 |
| 65 to 68 | 9 | 2 |
| 69 to 72 | 1 | 3 |
| 73 to 76 | 3 | 3 |
| 77 to 80 | 2 | 2 |
| 81 to 84 | 2 | 4 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 2 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 0 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 0 |
| 97 to 100 | 15 | 0 |
| 101 to 104 | 9 | 4 |
| 105 to 108 | 6 | 0 |
| 109 to 112 | 4 | 2 |
| 113 to 116 | 2 | 0 |
| 117 to 120 | 9 | 0 |
| 121 to 124 | 1 | 0 |
| 125 to 128 | 13 | 1 |
| 129 to 132 | 5 | 6 |
| 133 to 136 | 1 | 0 |
| 137 to 140 | 25 | 0 |
| 141 to 144 | 2 | 0 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 0 |
| 149 to 152 | 1 | 0 |
| 153 to 156 | 2 | 4 |
| 157 to 157 | 4 | 0 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 64 are women's.
184 lines from women, 102 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 24 men in the cast. 1 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 6 of 407.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 17 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 53% of the words (1,106), men 47% (964). Women have 64% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
3
Exhibit E: behind the camera
10 of the 18 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 45% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Niki Caro (woman)
- Written by
- Andrea Berloff (woman), Peter Craig (man), Misha Green (woman)
- Produced by
- Miri Yoon (woman), Jennifer Lopez (woman), Misha Green (woman), Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas (woman), Benny Medina (man), Roy Lee (man) and 1 more
- Shot by
- Ben Seresin (man)
- Edited by
- David Coulson (man)
- Music by
- Germaine Franco (woman)
- Production design by
- Jean-François Campeau (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Jeriana San Juan (gender not listed), Bina Daigeler (woman)
- Cast by
- Nancy Nayor (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
7 women, 15 men, 12 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 1 men, 13 not listed
-
Sound
3 women, 8 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
4 women, 1 men, 10 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 1 men, 12 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 3 men
-
Directing
3 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 41 on average. Men: 52 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Lucy Paez 14, Yvonne Senat Jones 38, Jennifer Lopez 53, Edie Falco 59
Men
Jesse Garcia 40, Gael García Bernal 44, Omari Hardwick 49, Joseph Fiennes 52, Paul Raci 75
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 157 scenes and 407 lines of dialogue. How the test works
